Finding The Joy Of The Process
There are few things I believe in as strongly as this. Few things that have mattered more in more creative journey, and have helped me more through challenging times. It’s the closest I’ve come to a magic trick. What is it? It’s the joy of the process.
It’s so easy to get stuck in the results of creativity. On how good your skills are, on comparing your output to other creatives, on whether people are liking and following your work, how you’re gonna “make it”. It’s not surprising. Our whole economic system and society is built around the value of tangible outcomes, and creativity is often measured and judged on those same terms.
Yet for the creative, an overly strong emphasis on creative results can be detrimental to the creative process. What we need to do instead is to look for the joy.
Shaping joyful creative moments
I’m writing this with my back against a tree and a lake stretching out before me. The trees on the other side reflect in the still water, and birds are singing all around me. I have brought my laptop here and a thermos of tea, to write about a joyful creative process.
Please don’t confuse this for a dream existence of a life. I’m fortunate and grateful to be able to work like this, but I’m here because I need to tap into the joy of the process again, coming out of two quite anxious, confused and messy weeks. I’m doing this to invite joy, in my work and life, just like we all have to.
Instead of only focusing on getting our creative work done, we can shape joyful moments for creativity. I decided to go here because this was the most joyful way I could think of to write this blog post. While this setting is a little unusual for me, I often vary my surroundings when I create. Instead of always sitting at my desk at home, sometimes I work at a café or in my garden. For filming and photography, I often head outside. And I’ve made a Monday habit of taking my weekly planning to a café not far from where I live.
These are small things, but they make a significant difference for my energy, inspiration and joy. If I feel stuck, uninspired or anxious, it often helps to take my work somewhere else. In my membership community, Companions In Creativity, we’ve shared our café creation adventures during spring and it has been so much fun. I love that writing can happen pretty much anywhere, if not with a laptop then a notebook.
And it doesn’t have to be a location change. During winter, I might light a candle beside me, in spring put a vase with tulips on my desk. It could be a good playlist, a teapot with tea, or wearing something that makes you feel cosy, badass, or sophisticated - however you want to feel.
The question to ask yourself is: what would make the experience of creating a little extra joyful? How could you shape this into a small, joyful moment? It might take you a little bit longer, and maybe it’s not the most efficient way to create. But the added inspiration without a doubt makes up for it.
Letting joy and inspiration guide you
The location affects how you feel in the moment of creating, but what you create of course makes an even bigger difference. As much as possible, I try to follow my own inspiration and joy when I create, and I encourage you to do the same. If you feel an inkling for an idea, then try to go with that.
When I work with coaching clients or community members who feel lost or depleted, I like to ask them: where is your inspiration pointing you? Because it usually is pointing somewhere. It can be to concrete subjects, or things like craving lightness or depth in your work.
When we’re too focused on results, we might think about things like “what’s going to perform best on Instagram?" Or “what should I create that fits with my style?” It’s an outside view on your work that can be helpful, but if you lay your focus entirely there, you lose your connection to your own voice and expression.
If you feel like you’ve lost track of that inner voice, sit down and journal out these two questions. What would feel joyful to create? And what is my inspiration pointing towards?
A joyful process produces good results as a biproduct
We obsess about getting good creative results, but maybe we should obsess more about creating a joyful process. Because what happens when we’re enjoying our creative work? What happens when we feel stimulated, calm, focused and inspired? Well, then we create well. We want to return to our creativity. We get new ideas and feel good. And our creative results reflect that.
Yes, there might need to be some strategy behind it. If you have goals like mine, where selling and marketing is part of it, then you can’t just ignore the work that feels challenging. You have to create with intention and make sure you’re doing the type of work that will move the needle.
But what if you, within that intention, simply focused on joy? What if you did whatever you needed to do to enjoy your process, nurture play and have fun creating?
I know one thing for certain. When I’m in a good mood, then I’m optimistic, creative and good at strategy. This is when I’m my best self, and my best creative self. On the flipside, on days when I’m anxious or tired, I’m pessimistic, bad at planning and I struggle to focus. So one of the best things I can do for my creative work is to take care of myself. Not that every day can or should be a perfectly happy day, but do what I can to avoid unnecessary bad days. The most important source in your creative work is, after all, you.
As I sit here writing with the tree behind my back, ants have made a new highway over my jeans and my neck is getting a little sore. It’s not a writing spot for every day. But coming here to work on this blog post has brought me so much joy today, and I know how much it has nourished me and my creativity. And that, I know, is priceless.
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